5 Easy classroom routines to increase language exposure 

elsa o’brien lópez

Routines can be instilled into flexible learning. They can help learners manage time better and know what to expect next. They can also be an effective tool to increase exposure to language and provide additional support to learners who need it.

The beginning of the year is the right time to establish classroom routines. They can vary depending on the life-stage, the teacher and the learners’ needs. It is important to remember that having routines in place does not mean a lack of flexibility. On the contrary, they can allow for greater differentiation within a lesson if we’re talking, for instance about early finisher routines.

Routines can be very useful in making students feel more confident and what to expect next. These are very important in Early Years education. Students with Autism that find transitioning between tasks difficult and students who have problems with time management and organisation can also benefit from routines. 

Routines can also be a tool for quick and frequent language and content reviewing. Establishing some language revision routines is a way of easily building support  into the lesson for students that need additional exposure due to a lower language or content level or to specific learning difficulties.

1. Early finishers’ corner or continuous provision. If the classroom is big enough there can be a corner with additional materials for early finishers to carry on working. Having early finishers’ activities at hand can be a very effective classroom management tool as students can smoothly switch to another activity while those who need to can carry on working on the main task.

If the classroom is not big enough for an early finishers’ area for students to transition to, the materials can still be placed there and it is students themselves who pick some and bring them back to their desks. Among other things, early finishers activities can include: 

• a small classroom library around the topic of the month, 
• matching flashcards for students to review language or build on what they already know,
• worksheets with word games,
• post-it notes with mini-tasks, such as: create a riddle using today’s new language or draw a pictionary of today’s new words.

Early finishers are not necessarily the strongest students. Sometimes students who are not able to successfully finish a task can transition to the early finishers’ corner so that they get to practice some of the content or language in a different and perhaps more suitable way.

2. Seating arrangements and pairing up with flashcards. If there are matching flashcards with the unit’s vocabulary available, the teacher can place a card on each desk and give students the matching definition/drawing/translation. In order to know where to sit, they will have to go around the classroom looking for the matching card. This game can be done fairly often. Once the students get used to it there is no need to explain and the seating process happens quite swiftly. 

A useful follow up is to ask students with more difficult vocabulary to stand up and show their cards. This gives an additional opportunity to review it as a class.

3. Vocabulary cards of their own creation. Students are responsible for creating their own vocabulary cards with the word on one side and the definition or translation on the other side. There can be one set of cards for the whole class to foster collaborative work or one per student. Having students work on their cards will increase motivation to use them and will facilitate language acquisition thanks to their sense of ownership.

4. A toolkit poster. Additionally to the flashcards or instead of them, students can work on creating a poster that will serve as a toolkit. They can also do this as an early finisher activity or it can be a convenient gap filler at the end of the lesson. Working on a toolkit will promote learner autonomy and reflection.

The toolkits should remain visible on the wall of the classroom for the duration of the unit or even for the whole term or academic year. The learners’ attention should be brought back to them and they should get used to checking them as a glossary when they are in need of a word during a speaking, reading or writing activity.

5. Short revision games can be used at different times during the lesson. They shouldn’t take up much time and they can also serve as a brain break for students to regain motivation and concentration. Some easy to set up revision games are: 

• back to the board, 
• using the own created flashcards to pay guessing, miming, tabu, hangman games, 
• peal the onion game: each student writes a word from the lesson on a piece of paper and they rumple it into a ball with different layers. Then the ball is passed around the classroom and each student has to unwrap a layer, read the word and translate it or define it. This is a good activity to be played outdoors or in the corridor.
• leaving password game: each student needs to say a new word as a password to be ‘allowed’ out.